


In The Darkness, There’s A Guiding Light

by Nixie_DeAngel



Series: Fluff Not Fear [25]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Surprise Ending, brief mention of Coldflash, helping each other heal with their loss, loss of a loved one, mention of other characters, one or two curse words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-29
Updated: 2017-06-29
Packaged: 2018-11-19 01:04:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11302542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nixie_DeAngel/pseuds/Nixie_DeAngel
Summary: Neither speaks for another moment, even after Cisco climbs back to his feet, wrapping his arms around his body as soon as he’s standing.Lisa purses her lips further, eying the way his hunched in on himself, like he’s barely holding himself together and she decides she really, really doesn’t like it but she also doesn’t know what to do with this version of Cisco before her.Or, Cisco and Lisa help each other deal with the losses of their brothers.





	In The Darkness, There’s A Guiding Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Liu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liu/gifts).



> Prompt: helping each other deal with the loss of their brothers; fic (no preference on smut or no smut).
> 
> I'm apologize now, I suck at tagging things.

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It’s not often Lisa finds herself well and truly surprised by things. Growing up the way she and Lenny had, the lifestyle they chose to live, they ensured neither sibling got surprised by things much. So it takes Lisa a few minutes to place the feeling bubbling up in her chest, takes even longer to realize there’s a small thread of worry coiling around her chest as she takes in the scruffy, disheveled form of the first man in years that had treated her like a person, instead of just a pretty accessory to take on and off whenever they deemed it necessary. She feels something tug in her chest as he jerked himself out of the way, narrowly avoiding crashing into Lisa, and tripping over his feet to fall down to his hands and knees onto the sidewalk.

Stopping herself before she could reach out to touch the stubble covered cheek, Lisa slips her hands into her jacket pockets while she waits for Cisco to find his balance and realize who he walked into. Pressing her lips together tightly, they dipped down into a frown and she can feel her brow furrowing in concern when it takes the man far longer than it normally should.

“Cisco?” Lisa keeps her voice soft, quiet and, what she hopes is, concern bleeding through as she says his name.

“Lisa,” Cisco grumbles back at her, his voice is tight, dark and angry. It doesn’t sound like the normal cheery Cisco she knows and likes. He heaves a quiet, heavy breath as stays on the ground, making no immediate move to get up.

Lisa’s not sure what to do but let the quiet settle back around them as she takes a moment to think, deciding she in fact does not like this version of Cisco. She wants Cisco to be happy, laughing and smiling…not, not this angry and broken looking man that he seems to be right now.

Neither speaks for another moment, even after Cisco climbs back to his feet, wrapping his arms around his body as soon as he’s standing.

Lisa purses her lips further, eying the way his hunched in on himself, like he’s barely holding himself together and she decides she really, really doesn’t like it but she also doesn’t know what to do with this version of Cisco before her. She and Lenny had never learned how to deal with emotions like the ones she’s seeing right now.

So Lisa doesn’t, she talks Cisco into walking her down the street, pouting and explaining how this side of Central City wasn’t safe for a girl like her to be out and about by herself.

Cisco can’t help but snort as they both turn in the direction Lisa nods, even as she grabs his hand and tucks into the crook of her elbow, her taking the lead as they walked in companionable silence, “Pretty sure outta the two of us, your protecting _me_ , far more than I am you,” is muttered, his voice still tight, but a tiny smile playing at his lips.

Lisa couldn’t help it as she tossed her dark locks back and let out a soft, genuine giggle, “Still won’t stop you from trying to help, though.”

It’s an enjoyable evening for the both of them; Lisa even gets Cisco to crack a smile and let out a soft laugh, telling him about the time Lenny had to dress in drag just to go grocery shopping so he could feed Lisa and himself for an entire week.

Though they don’t talk about what is bothering Cisco that night, or any of the nights they get together for the next three weeks, but nearly a month and a half in, Cisco finally breaks down when their curled up together in her apartment, he tells her why he’s different, why he’s harder than he’d been before, when they’d last seen each other.

 

( _“Drunk driver,” Cisco murmurs as he gently rubs at the arch of her foot, head bowed and face covered by the curtain of his hair. “My mother hadn’t talked to me in months before she let me know. I thought,” he pauses when his voice cracks, he tries to swallow around the lump forming in her throat. “I was excited; I thought we could try mending fences.”_

 _“But then she told you what happened?” Lisa whispered as she gently pulls her foot back and tucks her legs under her. Reaching over, she gently cups his face and tilts it up enough, just so it’ll be easier to keep eye contact, because Lisa Snart may not be good at emotions but damn if she’s gonna let that stop her from helping Cisco deal with his_.)

 

Lisa knows she flounders the first few times they meet up after Cisco finally tells her the truth, knows she treats him differently than she had been before she sees it isn’t helping him, it’s making Cisco retreat back into his shell. So she stops trying to treat him like she is and goes back to treating him how she had been before she’d known.

Cisco’s smile starts to come easier, comes more often and starts to look brighter, his laugh stronger and louder. They start lasting longer with each passing day and Lisa can’t help but notice that she does the same. She can’t help but notice she’s happier, lighter feeling than she’s been in years.

Which is why she should have known it was going to come crashing down around her, she was happy. Happiness didn’t last long for the Snart Siblings, they’d never been good at getting it or keeping it, without paying a price.

 

(Lisa knows the minute she opens her apartment door and sees Mick standing there, shoulders drawn in a tense line, eyes broken and hollow, his face nothing but sharp angry lines. She doesn’t even need Mick to open his mouth, she knows what’s about to leave his mouth.

“I’m so sorry,” Mick rasps, voice shot and raw as he stares down at Lisa, “Tried, kid, tried to keep ‘im safe, tried to bring ‘im back to you, but I…” His voice trailed off as his hands began to shake.

Lisa feels her legs give out, feels herself fall to the floor, watches as Mick falls down with her, his hands out and hovering over her. Taking a shuddering breath, Lisa knows what she’s about to say is going to be painful for them both, but at the moment, she just doesn’t give a shit about how Mick feels.

“Get the fuck out.”)

 

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“Ray told me he was gone, Iris. H-he’s gone.”

Cisco draws himself up short at the broken voice of his best – Former? Current? – friend whispered. Cisco shook head, that wasn’t the important part of what he should be focusing on at the moment. Cisco turned on his heel and crept as quietly as he could towards the doorway, already knowing he was gonna have to pay some sort of penance for eavesdropping on a clearly personal conversation before Iris and Barry.

“Oh, Barry,” Iris murmured, pulling her foster brother into a tight embrace, “Oh I’m sorry, Bear,” she whispered, eyes screw tight.

Letting his lips dip down into a frown, Cisco took a moment to wrack his brain as he tried to figure out who could tear Barry up like this before it felt like a bucket of ice cold water was dumped on him.

Captain Cold.

Leonard Snart.

Lisa’s big brother, the man she idolized and she loved more than anything was…dead.

Shit.

Once again, Cisco spun on his heel; confident the others could finish up cleaning up or he could just do it later on before he was tossing up a portal and jumped through. He landed in the alleyway just behind the build Lisa currently was staying in.

Cisco let himself have a moment to orient his self before he took off, slipping in the back door and jogging over to the elevators. Slamming his fingers on the button, he glared at the slowly moving numbers, indicating the thing was moving down to the lobby slowly.

It takes him far longer than he likes to get up to her floor, the elevator having slowed him down, but he eventually gets through, lightly knocking on her door and paused. His ears straining to hear anything behind the wooden door for a few moments, though after a moment he smacked his forehead as he remembered the spare key she’d given him just a last week.

Opening up the door and slipping in, Cisco locked the door back up, slipped off his shoes and jacket, and then slowly made his way towards the back of the apartment, making just enough noise that Lisa would know exactly who it was, though he paused at her bedroom door. Lifting his hand up, he gently pushed the door open slowly and peered in.

Swallowing around the sudden lump forming in his throat, Cisco could feel his own eyes getting wet as he took in the figure laid out across the queen sized bed. Lisa’s shoulders were shaking silently, moving her whole body, even though she wasn’t letting a sound escape her lips.

Cisco squared his shoulders before carefully moving in and up onto the bed. He arranged himself just behind Lisa, not sure if she’d be welcoming to being touch, but staying near enough that she would know she wasn’t alone.

Lisa doesn’t wait long to let Cisco know if she wants him gone or not, by rolling over and burying her face into his neck and finally letting out a raw sounding sob. Moving, so as to not jostle her too much, Cisco wraps himself more firmly around, though still gives her breathing room, and just holds her.

They stay locked around each other for the rest of the night, and most of the next day before Lisa finally whispers, “Lenny’s not coming back any more. Lenny’s gone.”

Cisco knows there are a dozen things he could say right now, but none feel right to tell Lisa, not when she’s just lost the most important person in her world. So he takes a chance and doesn’t say anything at all and just tightens his arms around her and lets her hold onto him tightly for as long as she needs too.

Cisco doesn’t think the tricks that Lisa used to help him get over Dante’s death will work, but he tries and he thinks that works more than anything. Tells Lisa the more ridiculous adventures of team Flash, the stupid stuff he pulled in under grad, the pranks he and Ronnie played on Caitlin and Hartley.

Some get small smiles, others will get her giggling, but just like with him, it’s a slow, at times its steady, at others its bumpy, road to getting Lisa to a place where she feels like she has stability to her life. To where she feels almost whole again, to where knows she’ll be okay.

Cisco doesn’t mean to get her involved with team Flash, but with them being down Barry and Jesse, who finally decided to stay in her world, they needed just a little bit of help, help Lisa offered with a reasonable price, if Cisco does say so himself.

 

_(It’s not like officially moving in with Lisa will ever be a hardship on himself.)_

 

So Lisa starts out helping in small ways, giving Wally and Cisco tips, helping Iris getting the better contacts for her articles, even tossing cryptic info onto Joe whenever she deems him worthy of it. Lisa thinks Lenny would have had a fit, finding out she was helping the heroes of Central, but she also thinks he’d understand and back her play.

Though it’s difficult and hard, Lisa and Mick even sit down and make up, both promising to keep in touch with the other. It helps when he decides to leave the Waverider and stay in Central permanently. Lisa has a field day with the whole time travel thing, throwing a tiny fit when she finds out that Lenny and Mick never tried to bring her along with them on their adventures. Though, she as an even bigger fit when she rips the Legends for how they’ve treated one of the only members of her family she has left.

(No matter how much team Flash tries, Lisa won’t apologize to that pompous ass of a professor. Guy deserved the right hook she nailed him with.)

 

 

(Well, at least it they seem to find a peaceful middle ground until the time stream decides it’s the perfect time to spit out Lenny and Barry wrapped around one another, though thankful still fully clothed, with Eddie Thawne looking a little green around the gills as tries helplessly to get the hero and former villain to stop.

But that’s a story for another time.)

 

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**Author's Note:**

> I'm [Nixie](http://nixie-deangel.tumblr.com/). Don't be afraid to yell at me.
> 
> And I'm sorry, I'm Coldflash trash but I see you like the ship, so I thought you wouldn't mind the brief mentions of them!


End file.
